6 Bizarre and Amazing Mysteries that Remain Unsolved

The world is full of mysteries – places, crimes, acts… and some turn out to be pretty easy to solve. Others have experts and police tugging their hair out in frustration as they try to explain the unexplainable. But while they struggle to find the answers, we get to wonder and speculate as we wait for someone to find the right answers. Here are:

6 Bizarre and Amazing Mysteries that Remain Unsolved

1. The Sleepy Hollow of Kazakhstan; Kalachi, Kazakhstan

Welcome to Kalachi. Come for the hallucinations and week-long nap, stay for the month long boner. And no, I’m not making that up. In the small town of Kalachi in Kazakhstan, that’s exactly what the population is going through.

The “Sleeping Epidemic” was reported to have started in 2013, seemingly affecting at least one in ten people. Those affected complain of hallucinations and nausea before falling asleep, and have memory loss when waking up. The patients sleep anywhere from several hours, to over a week long. One ambulance worker reported that, during one winter, they had over sixty people struck down all at once. And it’s not just the adults – several of the kids in the town have been affected as well.

The local men also report an interesting, and very uncomfortable, side effect – an arousal and desperate need for sex that can last up to a month. This has been reportedly confirmed by many of the doctors and nurses treating the patients. One of the local women claimed that her husband demanded she return home at once to tend to his… ahem… need.

Other reported symptoms include swearing, giving the Nazi salute and speaking German, and rooster crows accompanied by flapping arms.

The townspeople blame the nearby uranium mine that was closed two decades ago. Many tests were done of the area and, although the mines themselves still contain high levels of radiation, the town itself, it’s water, soil and vegetation show no abnormal signs at all. A town closer to the mine also claimed that none of their people were affected by the sleeping illness.

In 2015 a theory was proposed – and generally accepted – that unusually high levels of carbon monoxide, coming from the mine, was the cause for the outbreak. These gasses would rise from the mines – so goes the claim – and accumulate in the cellars of the townspeople. As a result of the findings, both Kalachi and the mining town of Krasnogorsky are being evacuated.

Curiously, though, no explanation has been given as to why only certain people were affected with the sleeping illness, or why it would happen in various places – including outside – and not just in the affected homes or cellars. But hey, at least the people are finally being evacuated and relocated to safety. That property developers have, according to residents, shown interested in the area is just purely coincidental… right?

2. The Baigong Pipes; Qinghai Province, China

Although discovered earlier, the Baigong pipes really gained public attention after a news report in the Henan Great River News in 2002. The pipes are located mainly in Baigong Mountain, although they seem to spread out from there – traces of the pipes, or similar pipes, have been found around the nearby Tuoso Lake. They have been dubbed ‘out of place artefacts’ and, according to scientific dating, the pipes could be as old as 150’000 years. If they are indeed man-made as opposed to natural formations, the history of the area would have to be re-evaluated.

A smelter was employed to do a thorough analysis of the pipes. About 30% of the pipes consist of oxidized iron but, according to the report, 8% of the material remains unidentified. Even more interesting is that, according to geologist Zheng Jiandong, many pipes were discovered to be highly radioactive.

Theories about the origin of the Baigong pipes abound. Some hold that they could have been formed by magma pushing to the surface, while others hold that they could have been iron sediments washed into the caves during floods, or even that the pipes are fossilized tree roots. None of these theories have been proven conclusively - the origin and purpose of the pipes continue to elude scientists and geologists.

Yang Ji, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was even presented with a theory that the pipes were not man made but rather extra-terrestrial. He responded by saying that the theory is “understandable and worth looking into … but scientific means must be employed to prove whether or not it is true.” Whether or not he was serious in his response also remains a mystery.

3. The Lead Masks Case; Vintém Hill, Brazil

What do you get when you take two dead bodies, add lead sunglasses, and mix in a weird note with horrible grammar? Simple. A fifty-one-year-old unsolved mystery.

On August 17th, 1966, Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana, electronic technicians, left their home town to travel 200km’s to Rio de Janeiro. They were reported to have a significant amount of money on them, but all they bought before arriving at their destination – as far as the evidence goes – were raincoats to wear over their suits, and a bottle of water. The clerk who sold them the water was also the last person who could be confirmed as seeing them alive.

Their bodies were found on Vintém hill on the 20th of August. Most of the money was gone and, aside from their blinding metal eyewear, they had an empty water bottle, two towels and a notebook. That’s where things get really interesting – aside from parts numbers for their business, there was a single note:

“16:30 be at agreed place, 18:30 swallow capsules, after effect protect metals wait for mask signal.”

There were no obvious indications as to cause of death, and by the time the autopsy was done the organs were too decomposed to do proper toxicology testing – if they took any kind of poison capsule, there’s no way to know.

It gets better. They weren’t the first technicians to die this way. Four years before Cruz and Viana died, another electronics technician bit the dust on top of a hill with a similar mask. Turns out that all the men were part of a group that called themselves “scientific spiritualists” and they were trying to contact Mars – the masks were made to protect their eyes against the “intense luminosity” generated by these Martian spirits.

Two theories, both unproved, still circulate. A “professor of yoga” in the area proposed that this specific spiritualist community often took psychedelic drugs, and that the two men probably died due to an overdose. While it seems likely, the theory cannot be confirmed due to lack of a proper autopsy. Another was proposed by a Brazilian tabloid after a woman came forward and claimed to have seen UFO lights that night. So, the mystery remains – was it accidental overdose, or accidental death by extra-terrestrial hitchhike? You decide.

4. The Longyou Caves; Zhejiang, China

The discovery of the Longyou Caves was a happy accident, and one that makes us thankful for the curiosity of human beings. The ponds of Longyou were always thought of as “bottomless” and were used for fishing and daily chores. But Wu Anai wasn’t satisfied with “bottomless”, and in 1992, he decided to drain the pond to find out just how deep it was. What was revealed was the first of many amazing man-made caves.

Since 1992 a total of twenty-four caves have been discovered, and are estimated to be over 2’000 years old. These grottos are massive, up to thirty meters high, and cover an area over 30’000 square meters – quite a feat, considering that they are all built closely together. In some places the rock walls between the caves are barely fifty centimetres thick.

There are several mysteries surrounding the caves, the foremost being… how? The excavation of the caves would have resulted in over 1’000’000 cubic meters of rock needing to be moved; a task which, according to professional estimates, would have taken a thousand people, working day and night, nearly six years to complete – and that’s not even taking the finer detail work into account.

There are also no traces to be found of the excavated rock itself, nor of any tools used to do the work. On top of that, every cave seems to contain rooms, bridges, gutters and pools. The structures are also perfectly preserved – there have been no evidence of collapse or structural degradation discovered as yet.

All the walls in the caves are also chiselled. Although some of the walls contain large carvings of animals, every single surface contains near perfect symmetrical lines chiselled at a sixty-degree angle. Why? No one knows. Even the close proximity of the caves and the precision with which they were made baffle archaeologists, who believe that the methods required far exceed the abilities of the people known to have existed at the time.

Here’s the biggest mystery of all: a project of this scale couldn’t have been attempted by any random Joe living in the region. Historians believe that it must have been commanded at a much higher level – by the emperor, for example. But, despite this, not a single historical trace of the caves has yet been found. There are no records, no documents, no mention of them anywhere. It has left archaeologists and historians scratching their heads. Who built these amazing structures… and why?

5. The Screaming Mummy (Unknown Man E); Deir El Bahri, Egypt

In 1881 archaeologists made an amazing discovery; a hidden tomb they marked DB320. Inside was discovered some of the most legendary rulers of Egypt, including Ramses II, Seti I and Thutose III. The standing theory was that the high priests wanted to prevent the mummies of their beloved pharaohs from being damaged by looters, and so many rulers were spirited away to this new secret burial site. Although stripped of all their material valuables, these mummies retained the most valuable thing of all – their names. It was their names that allowed them to enter the afterlife.

Amidst all the excitement, one particular mummy was overlooked – named only Unknown Man E. What made him stand out was the nature of his burial, but also the way his body seemed frozen in contorted, painful agony. Before a proper investigation into his identity was opened, theories about his identity abounded – everything from him being a foreign dignitary or prince to being a royal who fell out of favour.

See, Mr. E is a bit of an enigma. His sarcophagus was given no name, and his body covered with the skins of unclean animals. Despite this burial cursing him to an eternity in hell, he was still found amongst the royals. This has both lent credence to the theory that he was a royal but also indicated that the disrespectful nature of his burial was deliberate.

Many tests were conducted that confirmed the mummy was indeed Egyptian, and shared many traits with the royals, but it still lent no clue as to his identity. Then came along a new theory…

According to surviving papyrus documents, Tiye, a wife of Ramses III, conspired to murder her husband – a plot in which she involved her son, Prince Pentawer. The plot was discovered, and Tiye and her co-conspirators were all executed. Pentawer, being a royal son, was given the option to commit suicide by poison for his crime. If Unknown Man E was indeed Pentawer, it would explain why he was both mummified – albeit quite hastily, with neither brain nor viscera removed – but also condemned in the process.

Archaeologists finally decided to test that theory, and a genetic analysis was done to compare Ramses and Mr. E’s DNA. Dr. Zink, one of the scientists who conducted the analysis, believes that the results prove that, at the very least, the two were related. This seems to lend a bit more credence to the theory that the mummy belongs to the prince. Unfortunately, that causes a bit of a problem…

A study conducted on the remains seems to indicate that Mr. E was strangled or hanged. Furthermore, it also indicates that the person was only around eighteen years old at his time of death. Prince Pentawer was believed to be significantly older.

And so the question remains, who is Unknown Man E? Is he truly patricidal Prince Pentawer? Or is he some unknown relative of Ramses III, and just what did he do to deserve eternal damnation?

6. The Somerton Man; Somerton, Australia

On December 1st, 1948, the body of a well-dressed man was found sitting on Somerton Beach. There was no indication of his identity, and even his clothing had the tags removed. He had a packet of Army Club cigarettes on him, but the actual cigarettes were Kensitas – a very expensive (British) brand compared to the affordable Army Club. Several other items belonging to the man (including a later discovered suitcase) all seemed to contain or indicate that he was British, aside from a single coat. Based on the unique stitching, it was decided that the man had to have traveled to the United States in procuring it.

The most interesting discovery was a small scrap of paper, hidden inside a concealed pocket. It read “Tamám shud” – a simple phrase from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam that means “finished”. What followed was, and is still, called “one of Australia’s most profound mysteries”. Interestingly, the identity and cause of death of the Somerton man has never been confirmed.

The police at the time reached out to the general public in an attempt to find the copy of the Rubaiyat from where the man’s scrap of paper came. A man came forward with the copy – it’s still unclear where he found it – and in the back was found a local telephone number, an unidentified number and a few lines of text which looked to be written in code (below). The code, if it is one, has also never been solved.

WRGOABABD

MLIAOI (scratched out)

WTBIMPANETP

MLIABOAIAQC

ITTMTSAMSTGAB

Public interest in the case was, and remains, significant – the death occurred at the beginning of the cold war, and with bits of information that had surfaced over time the case still remains open. In an attempt to find out who the man was, the police reached out to the FBI and Scotland Yard, but neither law enforcement agency was able to help in identifying the Somerset Man.

Traces, evidence and theories have since abounded.

One of the earliest theories was that he had committed suicide by poison. The type of poison has never been definitively agreed on, and the fact that there were no signs of poisoning (such as vomit or loss of bladder control) where the body was found, it was quickly put aside for other avenues of investigation.

The most popular theory is a convoluted mess that snowballs into the conspiracy theorists wet dream. It’s the perfect movie plot – star-crossed lovers meets Cold War espionage. Try to keep up.

The telephone number found in the Rubaiyat led police to a nurse named Jessica Ellen “Jo” Thomson, who lived about 400 meters away from where the body was found. When interviewed, Jessica denied knowing the Somerton Man, but the cops weren’t so sure she was telling the truth. One detective claimed that she seemed completely taken aback and looked ready to faint when shown a cast of the man’s face, while the technician who made the cast said that she looked away immediately after seeing it, and refused to look again. One went so far as to straight out say that she was being evasive in her answers.

Her daughter, Kate, did an interview in 2014 in which she revealed that her mother had, in fact, lied. Jessica had even gone so far as to say that the man’s identity was also "known to a level higher than the police force". Kate also claimed that she believed her mother was a spy – Jessica apparently spoke fluent Russian, and refused to explain when or why she learned it. So we have one possible spy, but why stop there? Kate went on to say that she suspected that the Somerton Man was also a spy, and that the two had possibly worked together.

Things get more complicated. Apparently Jessica Thomson had also owned a copy of the Rubaiyat – a copy which she had given to ex-army (and former intelligence) lieutenant Alf Boxall. At the time Boxall was confirmed to be alive, with his copy of the Rubaiyat intact – but he, too, proved evasive during questioning. His copy also contained a personal inscription from Jessica, quoting a verse of poetry from the book.

If things weren’t twisted enough, enter Maciej Henneberg, a professor of anatomy in Adelaide. He conducted a study that proved that the Somerset Man had a distinct ear feature that was only seen in 1-2% of Caucasian men. Derek Abbot took it one step further and, working with dental experts, also concluded that the man suffered from hypodontia – a genetic disorder of the incisors that is also only present in about 2% of the general population. Why is this significant? Because Jessica’s son, Robin, had both features. The chance of this being coincidental has been estimated to be about… oh, one in 20’000’000. And sister Kate? She refuses to have her brother exhumed for genetic testing to confirm, or deny, the possible father-son relation between Robin and the Somerset Man.

Okay, so maybe it all seems a little far-fetched – a desperate attempt by the masses to explain one of the longest enduring mysteries and open unsolved cases. But here’s one final kicker for you to mull over:

In 1945, three years before the Somerton Man died, a 34-year-old Singaporean man named George Marshall was found dead in a park in Sydney. His death was believed to be suicide by poisoning and, in our timeline, occurred just about two months before Jessica gave Alf Boxall her copy of the Rubaiyat. George Marshall was the brother of David Marshall, the man who became Singapore’s first Chief Minister. A woman named Gwenneth Dorothy Graham testified in regards to the death of George Marshall, and was found dead thirteen days later – face down, wrists slit.

What does the Marshall case have to do with the Somerset Man? When he was found, George also had one of that specific rare edition Rubaiyat copies… lying open on his chest.

But it’s all just speculation and theory. What’s the real story of the Somerset Man? We might never know. In the meantime, we’ll be waiting for the movie – we suggest Sam Worthington, Phoebe Tonkin and James McAvoy in the lead roles.

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